SpaceX completes hot test and prepares first landing of a rocket in California – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket powered by a recycled first stage ignited its main engines for a retaining shot on a launch pad Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, to follow the planned takeoff on Saturday night carrying a radar observation satellite for Argentina, a mission that will feature the first SpaceX booster landing on the west coast.

SpaceX has announced the completion of the static fire test in a tweet shortly after 14 hours. TUH (5:00 pm PDT, 9:00 pm GMT), confirming Falcon 9 launch is on track for Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, a military-run spaceport on California's central coast, northwest of Los Angeles. Angeles.

The takeoff is scheduled for 19:21. TAP Saturday (10:21 am EDT, 2:21 GMT Sunday) from Space Launch Complex 4-West in Vandenberg with SAOCOM 1A satellite radar satellite imagery from Argentina, according to a statement from the Air Force.

The SAOCOM 1A satellite will be installed on the Falcon 9 rocket later this week, after ground crews have lowered the launcher from its SLC-4W launch pad and put it back in a nearby hangar. A photo shared on Twitter showed the Falcon 9 rocket and its solid-backed structure vertically on the launch pad Tuesday night, while a freight train was rolling along a nearby railroad track, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Train passing by Space Launch Complex 4, which houses @SpaceX"S # falcon9 after the static fire of today. #saocom # rtls #spacex pic.twitter.com/A4Mq0DXCNB

– Brian Sandoval (@brianksphotos) October 3, 2018

SAOCOM 1A arrived at the launch base in early August to begin final pre-flight preparations after taking the Antonov An-124 cargo plane from an airport located near the satellite plant in Bariloche, Argentina, in California, with stops in Cancun and a customs check. Los Angeles before landing on the Vandenberg Trail.

The objective of the satellite is to scan the Earth with a synthetic radar aperture L-band direction, allowing images any time of the planet, day and night. Radar imagers can see through clouds and operate 24 hours a day, but optical cameras are hindered by clouds and darkness.

SAOCOM 1A is the first of two identical radar observation satellites developed by CONAE, the Argentine National Space Agency, and manufactured by a consortium of Argentine companies led by INVAP.

The new radar satellite will help measure soil moisture and monitor oil spills, floods, forest fires and other natural and man-made disasters. Soil moisture data will provide scientists and agricultural planners with information on soil moisture to a depth of more than 2 meters, which will help predict crop yields, floods and soil moisture. droughts.

SAOCOM 1A is the first radar imaging satellite built in Argentina. It will be part of a joint Argentine-Italian project to share complementary radar surveillance data between the SAOCOM satellites and the Italian constellation Cosmo-SkyMed.

For the first time, SpaceX will attempt to bring the first Falcon 9 stage relay back to Vandenberg, following a precursory return path on missions launched from Cape Canaveral. In previous flights from California, SpaceX has recovered the first Falcon 9 on a drone in the Pacific Ocean.

The concrete landing area at Vandenberg is similar in appearance to the SpaceX landing pads at Cape Canaveral. But the point of return of the rocket in California is much closer to the SpaceX launch pad than the landing zone in Florida.

SpaceX announced earlier this year its intention to attempt the first landing of a rocket at Vandenberg, following lengthy safety and environmental reviews conducted by the US Army. Air, the Federal Aviation Administration, the NOAA and the state authorities. Regulators discussed the potential consequences of returns on wildlife and natural resources, including seals that could be frightened by sonic booms.

The Air Force said in a statement Tuesday that residents of the Vandenberg Air Base could hear loud bangs as the rocket returned to Earth for a propulsive landing.

"Local residents could see the first phase of the Falcon 9 return to Vandenberg Air Force Base, including multiple motor burns associated with the landing," said the Air Force in a statement. "When attempting to land, residents of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties can hear one or more sonic booms.

SpaceX has named its landing platform in Zone 4 of Vandenberg Landing. It used to be called Space Launch Complex 4-West, a platform similar to the SLC-4E launch platform, now used by the Falcon 9 rocket.

The Air Force used the SLC-4W for the Titan 3B and Titan 2 rocket launches until 2003. The Air Force overturned the Titan 2 launch launches in 2014 and SpaceX rented them the site to the army in 2015 to reconfigure the property into a landing platform. The SLC-4E was once the homeland of the Titan 4 rocket on the west coast.

While the SpaceX landing zones at Cape Canaveral are located several kilometers from the Falcon 9 rocket launch pads, the Vandenberg landing zone is only a quarter of a mile – about 400 meters – from the starting point of the nearby Falcon 9, the SLC-4E.

Landing rocket landings cost SpaceX less and allow engineers to inspect and refurbish boosters for future missions. The deployment and return to port of a drone and its support ships can take up to a week, assuming a launch on time.

On missions with relatively light payloads in low-altitude orbits, the Falcon 9's first stage may reserve enough propellant for the engine burns needed to bring it back to its launch pad, rather than heading to a drone in the ocean.

Planet, which operates a fleet of more than 100 Earth-imaging satellites, has released a pair of photos taken from Space on Monday, showing changes to SpaceX's launch and landing sites. between the 20th and the 30th of September. The images show the circular landing of the rocket. area on the left – just inside the Pacific Ocean – and the Falcon 9 launch pad on the right.

The first relay assigned to SAOCOM 1A had already flown on July 25 during the seventh launch of SpaceX's Iridium Next communications satellites, before landing on the company's offshore drone. The Saturday night flight will mark the 16th time that SpaceX will reuse one of its rocket boosters during an orbital mission.

SpaceX could also try to catch some of the nasal shield of the Falcon 9 rocket, an aerodynamic fairing that protects the SAOCOM 1A during its ascent into orbit. The fairing-catcher equipped with nets of the company, a high-speed boat named "Mr. Steven, "can be sent to the Pacific Ocean to try to catch the refit as he goes down into the Atlantic Ocean under a parafoil.

As with the reuse of the first stage of the Falcon, SpaceX aims to recover and re-launch the fairings to further reduce launch costs.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.